Archive for July, 2009

Settling Debt

Friday, July 17th, 2009

Now they have those businesses that say you can settle for your debt for a fraction of what you owe right now.  Some seem legitimate actually.  They have their claims, and there are people who I’ve talked to who would swear by them.  But then there are others who are not so legitimate.  In fact, it’s really impossible to tell the difference between the two types, it’s hit and miss in a way.  But the simple fact is that when you call these companies, you take a risk.  After all, realistically speaking, the credit card companies don’t want to let you pay just a fraction of what you owe.  Yes, they get more out of you in a shorter time, but ultimately they still lose money.  That’s a big part of it.  Now if they sue you, you may be able to settle out of court for a smaller sum.  But outside of that, they aren’t going to be willing participants.  Most of these companies just take your money that you really should be putting into paying off your actual credit card bills letting you think that you are doing something for yourself and really just putting you further into debt.  So be careful with any you run across.

Small Towns Are Serious Businesses

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009

In some ways, I am entirely sure that small towns actually have the best home based business on the market.  In some states, they have what is called a cumulative charge, which basically means that when you get a ticket there, if you have gotten one in the past so many years depending on the state they get to charge you more.  I hadn’t heard about this till a while ago.  But others use the definition of speed traps to not really deter speeding as much as to make actual income for the town.  I mean when I heard that one town charged somebody $500 for going 15 over in a school zone, I am not going to say I disagree with that.  You shouldn’t be speeding at all in a speed zone, let alone going 15 over, that’s ridiculous and you take a lot of risks or rather the kids do with that.  So that you deserve, and school zone speeding tickets really should be higher.  But there was another going 15 over in a regular area, actually more of a highway, and they charged $472.  The woman who got it checked with her area where she lived, a more metropolitan area, and they charged $160 for the same ticket.  So there’s a serious problem, obviously a vast difference which is ridiculous and shows that they are trying to support city government rather than to deter speeding.  And apparently, though this is an amazing money maker for them, should you run into this problem, though the cities will essentially tell you that they can charge whatever they want, it’s actually not true.  In short, you should contact your state representative.

TV Time

Saturday, July 4th, 2009

There are various home business availabilities out there, and it just starts with one idea here or there.  Some people use one idea, others copy somebody else’s.  And still, regardless of how it starts, most small businesses fail within a short period of time.  But there was one man who apparently came up with something that worked.  JP Williams was watching TV at home with his daughter.  This particular graphic artist believed that the TV shows then available to his daughter were negative and harmful.  So he did something and created his own TV type program.  He watched how his daughter interacted with her favorite TV shows, and by doing this he developed a TV Time’s “box” and “tickets.”  Each TV time allowed her to watch shows in 15 minute intervals, and she had 2 tickets for DVD’s in 15 minute timers.  For each 15 minutes, she had to deposit a ticket into the TV time box, and then it would allow the child to see the show until their time was completed.  It is used for children between 2 and 5 primarily speaking, and it helps parents to control their children’s watching habits.  He has already spread this program to other parents in his own home business.

eBay Home Business

Thursday, July 2nd, 2009

If you are opening up your own home business, many people have chosen to do it on eBay.  Be careful whatever you do, because things are not always going to be the same.  With some businesses, you want to devote all your time and energy and get the appropriate loan with the appropriate stipulations from a reputable bank.  But with eBay businesses for example, a lot of phone companies try to get you to buy eBay business packages, and they don’t often tell you that it turns into an auto pay program that you have to call and cancel before 30 days when you find out that it is a waste of your money and really isn’t that great.

But the big thing with an eBay business is to keep a part time job to support you in downtimes.  Just like any other industry, eBay has downturns.  And of course remember to keep up on your tax concerns.  That is a big one that many people ironically forget about with eBay.  However, the big thing is to remember that it is not always going to bring in a stable or substantial income, and you have to be disciplined either way.  You have to count your losses when your product does not sell for as much as you paid or for that matter when it doesn’t sell at all.  And frankly, while many like eBay, there are boom times like around Christmas and downtimes like right after.  Either way, you don’t want to get stuck depending solely on that.